Grand Lake

We went to Grand Lake in August.  We decided it was a little farther than we want to travel for our mountain days since they're just day trips but it's definitely a place we'd like to go back to for a long weekend sometime.

We went on a short little hike (more like walk) to this river:

Gorgeous!!  I'm such a sucker for rivers and lakes!  (It's just outside of town but I can't remember the name of it...)







Then we had our picnic lunch at the lake (Grand Lake - I do remember that!).

We had Pan Bagnat (which is a fancy French name for really good tuna sandwiches) - I'll blog that recipe later.  Super yummy!

While we were eating the storm clouds rolled in and it got really windy and chilly - this seems to be a trend with us.  Maybe we should just eat in the car... The takeaway is that if you see us getting lunch out it's time to pack up and head out because the storm will be there soon.  ;)

After lunch we went to stroll through town and look who else decided to stroll through town and take a little break right in the park:

It was really cool to see him so close - he was huge!  I texted J a picture of him but he apparently wasn't so impressed. I guess you had to be there. 

But really seeing a moose so close made him seem very majestic. 

One more shot in front of the lake - getting colder and starting to rain:

My hubby is such a good sport! I saw a pull out next to the river and I wanted to get out and walk around a little on our way home and he pulled over and let me take all the time I wanted. 

I'm a lucky girl!

We enjoyed Grand Lake and saw lots of camping spots on our way up there - making plenty of notes as we went so we can go back and explore the area even more some day. Very pretty.

Things I learned on this trip - all our pictures together are selfies so we need to ask people to take a picture of us now and then.  And I really need to stay on top of these blogs since I'm already forgetting details!

Georgetown

We went to Georgetown last Saturday and I have to tell you I'm in *love* with Georgetown!  It's so stinkin' cute!

We drove up Guanella Pass to Clear Lake for a picnic lunch. The lake was nothing too exciting but the scenery around was fabulous and the drive, while full of switchbacks, was gorgeous. Thank goodness for my seabands or I'd get sick every time we go up the mountain! We started to have lunch and the wind was blowing and it was C-O-L-D!

We ate in a hurry because, well, it was cold. Just as we were heading back to the car it started to rain. Before we left that morning we said "maybe we should bring jackets" but then we forgot. Lesson learned! It's late August - we need jackets. We should probably always have them in the car anyway.

After lunch we went into Georgetown. It was cool in Georgetown but substantially warmer than up the hill aways!

One thing I love about Georgetown is that it sits in this little valley and any direction you look is a towering mountain covered in pine trees. Love!

We walked around the main street area for awhile then went to the Hotel de Paris Museum. The poor volunteer who was taking care of admission that day was an older lady and she was so frazzled that she had to run a credit card charge through because we didn't have cash. Lesson #2 learned for this trip - bring cash! Some of these small places deal better with that and some only take cash.

It was a fun tour that even takes you into the cellar. That wasn't so good for my tall husband but it was still interesting to see. Something like 90% of what you see there was original to the first or second owners - very unusual for a museum so I was pretty excited about that.

We also did the tour of the Hamill House museum - that was an excellent tour!

The house is gorgeous and the tour guide was great. We were the only ones on that tour and that always makes me happy because then you can go at your own pace and ask questions and really get the info on whatever interests you. The guide also gave us good information on Georgetown in general which always helps put things in context.

One thing he told us was that while most mountain mining towns had one decent fire department Georgetown had four (4!) excellent fire departments and because of that it's the only mountain town in the state that has never burned to the ground. This also explains why I love this town so much - seriously there were old houses and buildings everywhere with their little plaques "1875," "1888" and so on. No wonder it's so adorable!! There were two houses (adorable houses) for sale right across the street from the Hamill House but Dave wouldn't let me buy one. Well, actually he said I would really hate the commute. I said that's ok, I'll quit my job and stay right there in Georgetown...  ;)

This little mountain town is a gem and it's only about 45 minutes away from home. We both loved it and we'll definitely be back!! Next time we'll stay overnight so we can take more time exploring Guanella Pass.